1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a car wash roll assembly for laundering a vehicle as it proceeds along a predetermined direction of travel. More specifically, the present invention relates to a car wash cloth roll assembly having a one-piece media that is quieter and has increased rigidity.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well-known in the buffing industry to use power-driven rotating implements, typically called “buffs”, to polish, cut or clean a variety of different surfaces, such as metal surfaces or jewelry. For example, buffs can have a finishing media that is abrasive for sanding or cutting purposes. Additionally, buffs can have a finishing media that is soft for polishing purposes.
In the car wash industry, cloth rolls or brushes are also well known to wash or clean the exterior surfaces of automotive vehicles in an automatic or semi-automatic vehicle wash facility. These cloths rolls are used to wash or clean the sides and end surfaces of a vehicle, as well as horizontal surfaces, windows, and wheels. The cloth rolls are power driven rotating implements.
These cloth rolls that are utilized in the vehicle wash industry are often assembled using long strips of fabric such as synthetic felt; i.e. a non-woven needle-punched material. Such implements, although they perform well as far as the basic washing and/or cleaning functions are concerned, are noisy as a result of the slapping action of the individual strips or strands against the exterior surfaces of the vehicle as they rotate. Felt strips are also quite limp and do not fill out the full radial profile of a vertical axis brush unless rotated at fairly high speed. Further, increasing the speed only serves to heighten the noise.
Other cloth rolls have been utilized in the vehicle wash industry that are designed to minimize the slapping action. These cloth rolls are formed of a plurality of pieces of material that are sewn together to form a unitary cloth roll or wheel. However, the formation of these cloth rolls is extremely labor intensive and time consuming. Moreover, they can come apart along the seams where they have been sewn.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a cloth roll or wheel for use in a vehicle wash process that overcomes the disadvantages that exist with current cloth wheels.